Customers who had already bought iPhone Bumpers before Apple offered free cases to all iPhone 4 users have started to receive refunds from the company according to Macworld.

At last weekï¿½s iPhone 4 press conference, Apple said it would provide free cases to anyone who buys the iPhone 4 before September 30th. That free case offer includes a choice of either Appleï¿½s Bumper or a third-party case. As part of that offer, Apple said it would offer refunds to iPhone 4 users who had already bought Bumper cases from Apple.

On Thursday, some customers who bought their Bumpers from Appleï¿½s online store reported receiving refund notices from Apple. The message from Apple begins by informing the customer of the situation, and that ï¿½as of today, we have automatically processed your refund.ï¿½ Apple is also refunding shipping and VAT charges as well.

There is no word on how many customers have gotten refunds so far or how long this automatic refund process for online Bumper orders will take.

Apple made the free case offer for iPhone 4 users after complaints emerged regarding the handsetï¿½s antenna surfaced. The most common complaint involves the reception bars disappearing from the iPhoneï¿½s status bar when users hold the device a certain way, with their fingers covering the phoneï¿½s antennas.

At last weekï¿½s press conference, Apple said iPhone 4 owners would be able to apply for a new case at its Website starting at some point this week. As of late Thursday, Appleï¿½s site had not yet been update with new information on how to order a case.

In a personal visit to an Apple Store location this week, an Apple Store representative claimed Apple would be formally announcing the next step in its free Bumper case/case refund late this week.

We hope to have more to report today and will let you know the moment additional details are confirmed.

Skype for iPhone 2.1 went live yesterday and albeit the update was relatively minor, users running iOIS 4 can now run Skype in the background on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS running iOS4. As a result, Skype users can now receive Skype calls and instant messages while other apps are running or the iPhone is locked. As with the iPhone’s Phone app, you can continue your call while you switch to another application.

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Wireless carrier T-Mobile USA is said to be in discussions with Apple to bring the iPhone to the wireless carrier this fall, ending AT&T’s exclusive hold on the handset, according to a new rumor.

Per Cult of Mac, a “highly placed source” at T-Mobile, the wireless carrier and Apple are in “advanced talks.” The report placed an 80% likelihood that the iPhone will become available on T-Mobile’s network this fall.

Apple became interested because of the influence of T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, the source indicated. T-Mobile is the smallest of the four carriers in the U.S., with 33.7 million customers.

As it currently is, the iPhone 4 is not compatible with T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network in the U.S., as the carrier uses the unique 1700MHz spectrum. The iPhone is compatible with UMTS/HSDPA 3G connections at the frequencies 850MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz. In other words, the handset would need a new internal radio to work with T-Mobile’s network.

Apple and AT&T originally agreed to an exclusive deal through 2012, though it’s believed the terms of that contract likely changed over the years.

The latest rumor comes as most expected the iPhone to first head to Verizon, as reports have indicated that Apple is working on a CDMA iPhone that would be compatible with Verizon’s network. Unlike T-Mobile’s network, which uses the same technology but operates on a different frequency, Verizon is a completely different technology, which would require a more drastic redesign of the iPhone.

Per iLounge, Apple has pulled its remaining stock of iPhone 4 Bumper cases from its retail and online Stores ahead of its free giveaway. A check with an Ohio-based retail store, as well as with Appleï¿½s online store, shows no availability of the Apple-branded cases, and a retail store representative confirmed with iLounge that the cases had been pulled due to the giveaway.

Apple announced on Friday that it would be offering a free Bumper or other, yet-to-be-determined case to all current iPhone 4 users and those who purchase the handset by September 30th due to complaints over the iPhone 4ï¿½s antenna issues.

A circulating rumor that Apple may charge users to upgrade the iPad to iOS 4 this fall is specifically contradicted by Apple’s own licensing agreement, which states that the next major software update will be free to iPad owners.

Citing “top secret plans” from an anonymous source, Stuff.tv reported on Tuesday that Apple currently plans to charge iPad owners for the software upgrade. The source did not provide a price, but the U.K.-based magazine suggested it would be around £5.

The source reportedly told the magazine that the plans to charge are “definite.” It reached out to Apple for a comment, and the Cupertino, Calif., company responded that it doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.

However, the company’s iPad licensing agreements specifically state that the “next major iPad OS software release” will be free for hardware owners, casting some doubt on the rumor. Releases beyond that, however, may come with a charge.

“For example, if your iPad originally shipped with iPad 3.x software, Apple would provide you with any iPad OS software updates it might release up to and including the iPad 4.x software release,” the licensing agreement reads. “Such updates and releases may not necessarily include all of the new software features that Apple releases for newer iPad models.”

While it wouldn’t be unprecedented for Apple to charge for an upgrade, as previous software releases came with a fee for iPod touch users, due to an accounting issue, Apple eventually did away with that fee, as the iOS 4 upgrade is free for iPod touch owners.

With the recent release of iOS 4.0 and iOS 4.0.1, one question has needed to be answered: does the update boost your iPhone’s battery life. Per Macworld, it does, the lab downgrading an iPhone 3G that was running iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3 and running a series of tasks. The staff then upgraded the iPhone 3G to iOS4 and ran the same set of tasks.

In additional tests, there proved to be an even greater increase in battery life with iOS 4 on an iPhone 4GS, with the updated iPhone 3GS lasting 14% longer (35 minutes) than with iOS 3.

Take a gander at the article for specific details behind each test. And in spite of AntennaGate, the iPhone 4 and the usual complaints that come with any upgrade (“iOS 2.0 used to paint my house for me and that’s why I’ll never upgrade!!!”), it’s nice to see the battery life improve a bit.

After being hounded by weeks of complaints regarding the iPhone 4′s antenna, Apple today held a press conference to tackle the press conference head on.

While the company didn’t issue a sweeping recall, it noted that you can get a free bumper case (or a refund if you’ve already purchased one) and that since they can’t make bumpers fast enough, you’ll be able to select from a choice of cases on the Apple website starting late next week.

Per the full play-by-play over at the Apple Core, iPhone 4 customers still have the option of returning the phone for a full refund, with no restocking fee within 30 days. Apple also announced that the white iPhone is going to start shipping at the end of July and that its bringing the iPhone to 17 more countries on July 30, including:

In spite of the press conference scheduled for today, the iOS 4.0.1 update and Apple’s well-documented problems with the iPhone 4′s antenna and reception, a new report claims that a recall of the handset won’t be among the announcements.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a source close to the story has stated the company doesn’t plan to instate a recall of the more than 2 million units it’s shipped worldwide thus far.

That same source echoed an earlier report in claiming that hardware engineers warned chief executive Steve Jobs about the risks of the phone’s new external antenna design nearly a year ago, but that Jobs “liked the design so much that Apple went ahead with its development.”

The report went on to document how Apple’s immense secrecy over new iPhone masked the problem during the company’s evaluation process with its carrier partners, as design verification units were disguised as “stealth” phones that obscured their design and some of their functions.

“Those test phones are specifically designed so the phone can’t be touched, which made it hard to catch the iPhone 4′s antenna problem,” the Journal said. The paper added, citing people familiar with the matter, that Apple afforded carriers “limited time to test the iPhone 4 before its June 24 launch” and equipped them with “fewer devices to test than other handset makers.”

Although Apple declined to comment on its development methods for the new iPhone, a company spokesperson fired back at the claim that a senior antenna expert had expressed his concern over the new design to Jobs, challenging the publication to “produce anything beyond rumors to back this up.”

“It’s simply not true,” the spokesperson said.

Concerns over the iPhone 4′s new antenna design began generating headlines ever since its June 24th launch, when some users began reporting the handset’s propensity to lose reception and sometimes drop calls when cupped in the lower left corner.

Though media coverage of the matter persisted for a couple of weeks on and on-and-off basis, it reached a boiling point earlier this week when Consumer Reports did a 180-degree turn on its stance on the iPhone 4, and announced that it could no longer recommend the device to consumers because of the antenna issues.

Since then, the matter has only escalated further up the chain, with democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer on Thursday issuing an open letter to Jobs, calling Apple’s current solutions to fixing the problem “insufficient” and asking the company to provide a free fix for consumers.

Following up on rumors, Apple has released iOS 4.0.1 via iTunes. Per MacNN, the update makes just a single major change, that being improved accuracy in iPhone signal display. The company recently promised a software fix in light of reception issues, though it’s now believed the problem is traceable to hardware. The download is only available for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4.

For iPad owners, Apple has meanwhile posted iOS 3.2.1. The firmware solves several issues, most notably trouble with Wi-Fi connections. It also corrects a glitch with PDF attachments in Mail, and two video bugs: one causing videos to freeze, and another hampering the official iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter. The one feature addition is Bing support for Safari search.

To download and install the updates, which each weigh in at over 300 megabytes, attach your iPhone or iPad to your computer, open iTunes, select the device and search for an update. The process will occur as per usual.

Apple is scheduled to hold a full iPhone 4 press conference today. Stay tuned to the PowerPage for additional details as they become available.

And if you’ve noticed any major changes or would like to offer feedback on this, let us know.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for Apple’s iPhone 4 reception issues. On Wednesday, Consumer Reports announced that Apple iPhone 4 owners can eliminate reception problems by enclosing their phones in the “Bumper” case Apple sells.

The findings could presage a decision by Apple to offer iPhone 4 owners a free Bumper, as the publication confirmed yesterday that it has been in contact with Apple over its testing results.

Per Macworld UK, the consumer testing organization said it could not recommend the iPhone 4 because of major reception issues when users touched the external antenna, the publication’s engineers went back into their lab to retest with iPhones equipped with Bumpers.

Apple’s Bumper, which retails for US$29, represents the company’s first efforts to move into the iPhone case market.

“With the Bumper fitted, we repeated the test procedure, placing a finger on the Bumper at the point at which it covers the gap [on the lower left side of the case],” said Paul Reynolds, Consumer Reports’s electronics editor, in an entry on the magazine’s blog on Wednesday afternoon.

The publication tested only Apple’s Bumper, although another Consumer Reports editor said yesterday that it was planning on evaluating several different cases.

“The result was a negligible drop in signal strength – so slight that it would not have any effect, in our judgment.”

On Monday, Consumer Reports explained its could-not-recommend decision by describing testing of three different iPhone 4s in its radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber, where a cell tower emulator simulates real-world signals.

The magazine’s engineers also tested several other AT&T-sold phones, including the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. None of those phones showed the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and I’ll happily trade you my first born for a Bumper should the need arise…